Chapter 529: ‘I wish I would have done things differently’
“The layout of this place is quite something,” Everelle commented as the group took another turn which revealed more of the same long and narrow corridor. They had been following that single long and winding corridor for a few hours now, making slow progress as they needed to check for traps, of which there were actually a few dangerous ones here and there.
“We should be almost at the end,” Sofia said, “I’ve just realized, but the corridor is actually some kind of ritual circle layout, I think. It wasn’t too obvious since all the corridors are straight with right angles, but it sure is starting to look like it,” she explained as she took a tiny three-dimensional bone map of what the group had explored until now out of her armor.
Everelle stopped in her tracks, “Woah, where the heck have you been hiding that?”
“Usually as long as things are peaceful, I’d sculpt a map holding it in my left hand like I did back in your dungeon, but since I have a convenient hole in my chest right now… See, that’s the bottom layer we’re on, it’s weird to see a square ritual circle but that’s what it is, is it not?”
“It is indeed reminiscent of some kind of ritual,” Ihuarah analyzed, observing Sofia’s map, “However… I doubt it would be functional as is. We would probably need to circularize it, first. Flooding these corridors with mana might still do the trick, at such a scale the cleanliness of the shape loses importance.”
“We don’t have that much mana, that would take forever… Let’s just get to the end and see then. Trying to activate a ritual circle we don’t know the effects of is a risky thing to do in the first place,” Cinthia said, trying to be the voice of reason.
“Would not be my first time,” Sofia snarked, “But I agree, and we won’t have the full ritual until we find the end of that corridor anyway so it’s not like we could try it right now. Still, that at least explains the dungeon’s strange layout.”
“And with this, we should almost be back to where we started…” Sofia said, extending her bone map up to the corner the group arrived to.
“Looks like a dead-end ahead…” Cinthia observed as they all took yet another turn.